Every Breath You Take
by Lady Elena Dawson
Summary: What if Aria had stayed over at Ezra's in 5x04? And what happens in 5x05 after Aria and Ezra give in to the building tensions Aria's been trying to ignore? Three-shot.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So...is everyone alive? Is everyone okay? No? Good. Never eat key lime pie again.**

**This two-shot was conceived when I was sitting in bed late at night after the PLL 100th and I just _really_wanted to write for last week's episode and the 100th, even if it was just a drabble, because I just thought the sexual tension between Aria and Ezra was great and it was even greater that they were slowly building up their relationship but then BAM sexual tension can only build for so long and that became the most surprising scene to ever appear on ABC Family television. So I'm here to illustrate it all.**

**The first part of this starts off with a different Ezria plot than 5x04, and that is if Aria really did stay at Ezra's instead of scaring herself off. Though a lot of people were upset by that, I was fine with it because I can only imagine how confused Aria is on what the heck she's supposed to think and feel about Ezra. That's a main part of this two-shot: mostly Aria's, but also Ezra's, emotions in the past two episodes. And, you know, what could have happened in 5x04 if she had stayed.**

**Part two will be posted as soon as I have it finished, which should be tomorrow. Hint hint: Let's just say there's some post naughty scene stuff going on, and the morning after.**

**I hope you enjoy! And take a deep breath, Ezria shippers, because I know you're all still in cardiac arrest.**

* * *

**Every Breath You Take**

**Part 1**

**Summary: What if Aria had stayed over at Ezra's in 5x04?**

"Actually, would you mind if I stayed here?"

The question had spurted out of Aria's mouth so fast, she'd been unable to swallow it back. Instead her voice had permeated the air around them, and a shocked Ezra glanced up at her, unsure whether he had been hearing things correctly or not.

"On the couch," Aria had elaborated. And that's where she was now.

On the leathery cushions she laid on her back, wide awake, staring at the ceiling, her fingers toying with the hem of the battered Hollis shirt that was her favorite from Ezra's collection. The yellow tee only came up to her mid-thighs, but she had stolen a pair of shorts she had unsurprisingly left here when Ezra was in the shower, though typically before she wouldn't have worn shorts underneath.

But this wasn't before anymore. This was now, and before had been destroyed.

Inhaling quietly, Aria shifted her head to the left and stared at the TV, the screen an inky black. The moonlight streaming through the balcony windows slightly illuminated the entire room with a beautiful, pale light, and Aria twisted her head and was able to see the moon peeking out from a gray cloud.

The breath hitched in her throat. The sound of sheets rustling picked up on her ears, and her lungs halted. Ezra had been shifting around all night, and Aria wasn't sure if he was sleeping or not. She sure as heck wasn't. The tension between them was so thick and compacted it would take a diamond to cut through it.

Meanwhile, Ezra was definitely awake. The medicine had made him drowsy, but for some reason he had perked right up again. He stared up at his ceiling, his finger running over the jagged wound that still stung a bit when he touched it. The surgeon had told him he would always have some shattered bullet debris imbedded in his flesh, something they couldn't remove safely, and because of that the pain would take longer to fade.

Aria wasn't sure what she was thinking, but her lips parted and her voice echoed in the dim room. "Ezra?"

As soon as he heard Aria say his name, Ezra's body stiffened. He disliked the awkward relationship they had going on, yet he felt lucky he was seeing Aria at all. He would understand if she never wanted to speak to or see him again. Yet she was back in his life, the life he had almost given up on after slipping into a comatose state. While he had fallen unconscious, he didn't see much, but when he did he saw her and her friends. She had trusted him; they had all trusted him. He had told himself he would find A so that they could go on with their lives. Instead he'd almost ended up dead, and he assumed that was why Aria was hanging around despite the wall she had put up between them since their relationship, the one they had fought so hard for, had exploded—because the shooting had shaken her and she'd realized she hadn't meant it when she'd said she never wanted to see him again.

There was only silence in the room, and Aria gave up, certain Ezra was asleep as the seconds ticked on. But then he spoke, and her heart skipped a beat. "Yes?"

Gulping, Aria picked up the blanket she had thrown on the ground next to the couch and bundled it up in her hands, trying to distract her conflicted mind. "Are you…," she trailed off, uncertain whether to ask what she wanted to. "Are you sure Shana was A?"

In all honesty, Ezra wanted to say no, but he also wanted to protect her. She already felt horrible; why did he have to add on another layer that said she had killed someone who wasn't the master of it all? However, he decided not to directly answer the question. "Nothing's happened since New York."

"Yeah," Aria whispered, feeling only slightly better. "Unless that's A's master plan."

Ezra didn't know what to say, so instead he said nothing. After a minute of utter silence, Aria said, "Goodnight, Ezra." But sleep Ezra did not.

Eventually Aria's eyelids grew heavy and she shut them. In front of her eyes was Shana, pointing the gun at her friends as the theater surrounding them poked out from the darkness. Aria's hands shook as she approached the scene, her left eye twitching while she picked up the gun. _No one tries to kill my friends, _she thought as the fire roiled in her stomach. _And no one is allowed to hurt him. _Her jaw clenched, her hands firmly held the gun, and it happened so fast. Shana whipped around, cocked the gun at her, but an instinctual feeling took over Aria and she jerked the prop up. The bullet that was meant for her bashed the light, and Aria just…shoved. There was the echo of bone snapping, louder than it should be, and the sound almost ruptured her ears. Trembling, Aria looked at her friends with wide eyes, at their pale, horrified faces. Alison went whiter than the rest of them. "Oh my God," she uttered, and Aria's vision blurred. She shut her eyes and dropped the gun, tears overflowing down her cheeks. The faint coppery smell of blood built up until it was an unbearable, pungent odor, and when she finally opened her eyes, her friends were gone, Shana's body was bent and twisted on the ground in front of her, the police were running towards her, and her hands and clothes were covered in Shana's blood.

Aria woke up with a start and sat up hastily, a bead of sweat forming at her hairline. She tried to breathe but found it nearly impossible, and her eyes watered in fear as she attempted to get control of her lungs. It was like someone was choking her, some supernatural being she couldn't control. Now, Aria didn't believe in ghosts, but she wouldn't be surprised if Shana's came and strangled her in her sleep. Aria covered her eyes with her hands and tried to calm down. _I'm sorry_, her dream-self echoed in her head. _It was a mistake. I didn't mean to kill you. I'm sorry._

It was like something had pumped air into Aria's lungs, because she found herself able to breathe normally again. Her heart was ready to jump out of her chest, and she didn't want to remove her hands in fear that they'd be covered in Shana's blood just like in her dream—or that Shana's ghost was standing over her with crazy eyes, ready to finish her off.

A minute passed and Aria was able to convince herself that her fingers wouldn't be dripping in red fluid and that everything was a part of her overactive imagination. Shakily she ran her hands down her face, her eyes peeking out into the darkness. As her pupils adjusted to the lack of light, she moved her hands to her chest and placed them over her palpitating heart. When was this going to blow over, if ever?

Again she found herself needing to repeat herself like she had been lately with the Shana thing. "It's all my fault," "It was an accident," "I should be the one who's sorry," she wanted to reiterate it all. It was becoming a habit in order to bring herself some comfort and peace of mind, but the only time she hadn't been restless about it was last night when Ezra distracted her with board and card games.

_Ezra. _His method seemed to be working. Looking over her shoulder, Aria glanced at the bed, Ezra's supposedly peacefully sleeping frame covered by the covers. Gulping, she stared at him for a long time, just thinking. Thinking about how patient he's been with her about Shana, how much he was willing and wanted to help her, how much she missed him. It was enough to drive her crazy and…forgive him.

She wanted to forgive him, but that stubborn part of her that latched on to her past told her that she still couldn't trust him. How was one supposed to feel when someone they'd trusted for over a year had kept secrets for so long? How was Aria supposed to handle the fact that what she had believed to be fate was just a writer's intuition to collect inside information? Even if he had been a bit helpful with the A thing, becoming obsessed with stalking down the killer, how could she forget that he'd originally wanted to use that information to make millions and end up on the _New York Times _list?

But since she had seen that wound in his side, had hardly been able to see through her tears, had felt the blood ooze through her fingers as she desperately tried to make it stop bleeding, had almost thrown herself over him uttering "I'm sorry" over and over but had instead given up the fight and fallen into Spencer's comforting arms, broken and shaken as they drove him away, his fate unknown, she was conflicted over how she was supposed to feel about him. She was still so angry, so unforgiving, yet a part of her would always belong to Ezra, like all soulmates, and maybe that part was more powerful than she'd originally thought. Maybe current sacrifices and truths _did _trump the dirty past lies.

Biting her lip, she scooted off the couch quietly and padded over to the bed. She was about ready to turn around, pounce on the couch, and bury herself under the blanket in embarrassment. But she managed to push through that barrier and daringly sat down next to him, her hand reaching out to touch his shoulder—

"Aria?" Ezra mumbled while groggily opening his eyes. Aria's hand jerked back and her skin paled, glowing from the moonlight. Though Ezra had been pretending to sleep, Aria didn't know that, and he continued his charade to avoid an awkward conversation. "Why are you up?"

"I can't sleep," Aria whispered, then, more hesitantly, "I…I need to talk."

Ezra sat up and rubbed his eyes, though they were wide awake. "Sure, of course."

Aria felt like she couldn't breathe, otherwise the room would collapse or something equally horrible would happen. She tugged gently at the covers. "Can I…?"

Ezra scooted over to the left and made room for her, and she snuggled comfortably into the covers, the corners of her lips turning up in a short bit of happiness. But then she snapped out of it and remembered her nightmare. "I had a dream about Shana."

From Ezra's angle the profile of Aria's face was lit up so that it appeared that she was glowing, like an angel. He wished he could take a picture of it if she didn't look so unhappy and haunted—and if they were still together, which they weren't. "What happened in this dream?"

Aria shook her head. "It…it was just a repeat of what happened, only with more blood and…sound." The deafening snap of the bone cracking echoed in her ears, and she closed her eyes in disgust that _she_ had been the one to push Shana off that stage and into the orchestra pit. So _she _had been the one to break her bones.

_No_, Aria scolded herself. If her "therapy" sessions with Ezra had taught her anything, it was that she had to stop blaming herself for every single last thing. _She _hadn't been the one to break Shana's bones; the fall had. The fall…which she had caused. Aria swore under her breath, loathing the vicious cycle and wishing she could conjure Emily because Emily, unlike Aria, had actually forgiven herself.

Then Aria was reminded of what Ezra had said: "You're just going to have to find some way to forgive yourself." He had backed up his advice with "And that's not something that's going to come easily or come overnight. But we'll get there." Aria had looked away at his slip-up. "_You _will get there," he corrected himself in a lowered voice, glancing at the floor like the both of them have been lately to avoid their tension-filled stares.

Now Aria turned to Ezra and asked, "Can I just explain what happened again?"

Ezra looked into her hazel eyes, glowing a murky brown in the dimness. He nodded his head encouragingly.

Clearing her throat, Aria turned back to her legs, which were the short lumps under the covers. "I was just trying to throw her off the edge to knock her out, but the way she fell... I guess her neck just hit the music stand and snapped, and..." She trailed off and shivered from the memory. "I shouldn't feel bad for an accident in self-defense, right? But I do. We could have gotten her help. She could have gotten better. She could have gone on and done something with her life. And for me to take that away from her, even though she was being psychotic and threatening…" Aria looked up at Ezra with her huge, round eyes ready to spill tears. When one escaped and trickled down her cheek, Ezra instinctually brushed it away with his thumb, forgetting—in the moment—that they weren't together anymore. She didn't jerk away from him, she didn't tell him to stop; it had been a simple, natural, caring gesture on his part. Besides, even if he did apologize for that swift action, he wouldn't genuinely be sorry. So instead they slipped into their awkward staring-off-into-space expressions until the moment passed.

Sniffling, Aria no longer had the urge to talk like before, her head too airy from that touch. She guessed even through grudges and conflicted thoughts a touch still had the same effect from the same person, no matter what she felt towards them.

Aria pushed aside her racing, heightened mind and glanced at Ezra, who was still staring at the sheets in front of him. "Can I stay here, with you, tonight?" she whispered. "I don't want to sleep alone, and…" She paused, reluctant whether to finish her sentence, but she did anyway. "You're the only friend I have right now."

_You're the only friend I have right now._ Her words repeated in Ezra's mind like a broken record. _Friend_. The word created a warm, intoxicating sensation, and Ezra smiled softly. As Aria curled up next to him, her head relaxing on his chest, Ezra kept thinking about how they weren't strangers. He wasn't her therapist and she his patient. They were friends, close friends, platonic friends.

And after everything that'd happened, after he was certain the shrapnel was too broken and scattered to even attempt piecing back together, Ezra was more than happy with that.

…

The next week, Aria was up late pondering her sleepover at Ezra's, aching—or was it more lusting?—for that comfort he was providing. She wanted, _needed_, more of it. She was still so terrified that she had ran from a murder scene, one that had been an accident out of self-defense but still a crime, and that she would be outed and handcuffed any minute. She would be charged with murder and her friends as accomplices in murder. Yet, the sensible part of her held her back, berating her for involving herself in a relationship that had been built on a lie. _So what if it was a lie?_ the romantic part of Aria contradicted. _You still love him. _

_Screw your first love, _the reasonable side scoffed.

_He isn't a bad guy, _fought the romantic side.

_It's toxic._

_Think about it, he's left you alone, not even reaching out to you, only interacting with you because _you_ reached out to him. He hasn't been begging for forgiveness…_

_He lied for a long time. He's kept so many secrets._

_He hasn't pushed you _once _since you found out. He would have left Rosewood if Shana hadn't gotten in the way, just like you asked him to._

_I can't deal with this right now, _Aria thought to herself as she shook her head of its arguments. She picked up her phone and scrolled through her contacts, wondering who to call. Spencer was busy with recent family issues, and though she was Aria's best friend, Aria couldn't burden Spencer with her persisting Shana problems anymore. Next Aria thought of Emily, but Alison's return was really shaking her up and confusing her, and the last thing Aria wanted to do was remind Emily of Nate…_again_. She could go to Hanna and Alison, but to Aria, they didn't seem as understanding as Spencer or Emily. So of course Aria was longing for the comfort only Ezra had seemed to provide, his words actually trying to rip apart the demon that had lodged inside Aria instead of just trying to convince her that she had killed A and that A was gone, so the case was closed and she didn't have to worry. He genuinely wanted to aid her in diminishing her guilt and worry.

"Hey, Ezra," Aria said as soon as he picked up, saying her name a bit skeptically. "I want to see you. Can we go on a walk?"


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Surprise! This is going to be a THREE-SHOT now! Here's part two.**

**P.S. I wrote the ending kind of quickly so I don't really like it. But if you like it, I'd love to hear you say that.**

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**Every Breath You Take**

**Part 2**

**Summary: …And what happens after Aria and Ezra give in to the building tensions Aria's been trying to ignore?**

Everything they did together came so naturally, it was like there was never any bad blood between them.

So when Ezra reached out and wiped the whipped cream off Aria's lip, he didn't notice at first that the action came so comfortably to him that he'd forgotten for the umpteenth time that gestures like that, something he would have done if they were dating, weren't allowed right now. But they kept happening anyway.

As usual the both of them instantly aimed their eyes to whatever was below them—to Ezra it was the tabletop, to Aria it was the key lime pie. Twice in two days, Aria couldn't help but notice.

"_I wish I could fix this for you."_

Last night Aria had trailed her fingers down the side of Ezra's face affectionately before realizing her mistake. The tension was building, and it was becoming very, very obvious, more obvious than she wanted it to be—because the more often they touched each other like that, so comfortably and naturally, the more that tension was brimming and boiling, and the more Aria was forgetting and possibly forgiving.

But then the moment passed and it was back to talking about Shana. That's when Ezra took initiative, the last thing he could think of that could possibly aid Aria in shaking this because it involved someone she was close to—him.

When Ezra pulled up his shirt and Aria saw the scar for the first time, her heart sunk into a deep, bottomless spot in her stomach. It took more strength to look away than it did to stare at it, and Aria used that energy to pry her eyes away, the realization of what Shana had truly done practically exploding in her head. Shana had been carrying the gun, Shana had been the one to threaten their lives, and Ezra's had already been hanging on a thread; and this was the aftermath of that. She wasn't joking when she said she'd blow their heads off. It was lucky for Aria that she was even sitting here, eating pie with Ezra, instead of packing away his things and sending them to his family who would never appreciate them as much as she did.

Seeing the scar once wasn't enough. It was surreal to Aria, because for the most part she was able to delude herself into thinking that those few minutes on the rooftop were just a dream. That when Noel had heard them screaming and had called the ambulance, her friends didn't have to drag her struggling body, crying his name, away as he kept bleeding. They say that when a person is unconscious they hear things, and as her friends had pulled her away from him she wondered what he was thinking when he heard her cries. She never told Ezra, but she really, _really _did want to stay on that rooftop with him, even if it meant questions from the police. The last thing she'd wanted Ezra to remember, if he wasn't going to make it, was that she had abandoned him when he needed her most.

"I'm so sorry," Aria breathed out, her finger running over the puffed line. Her mind wandered to the older days when it hadn't been there, and everything was as normal as it could be for their taboo relationship. She also wondered if he still felt any pain when the soft pad of her thumb touched the healing wound. By his barely noticeable intake of breath, he did.

Her heart was pounding—she could feel it in her head, in her neck, in her veins, pulsating faster and faster—as Ezra's hands encircled her arms and assisted her in standing up.

Aria was taken away by the glint in his eyes. It was something she hadn't seen in a long time, a look reserved only for when he was being the most serious he could ever be. Though it was a bit rough of a look for him, Aria knew what it meant: that he loved her, that he would fight for her, that he cared for her more than she could know or understand.

"I never want to hear you say you're sorry again." Because to Ezra, nothing she did could ever compete with how he had hurt her, destroyed her trust, and crumbled the very foundation of their relationship. He would rather live a whole life unforgiven and hated by everyone he'd betrayed than hear Aria say she was sorry.

Just like that, Aria stopped breathing. She knew what happened after situations like this. It was only a second, but for Aria it might as well have been a minute. Her eyes met his and she could feel his pulse go up under her fingers. Her face flushed and her entire body throbbed. The tension—it transformed into longing, lust, and passion. _Screw everything holding me back,_ Aria thought as she stared into those dark blue eyes she had repeatedly fallen in love with. This was it; the cap had exploded off the top. She was no longer able to mentally or physically hold herself back from what she desired. The throbbing passion trumped the conflict and the tension, and Aria lost sight of her grudge and unwillingness to forgive.

Ezra made the first move, but that didn't mean Aria wanted it any less. In fact, she welcomed it, her hand instantly grasping the back of his neck as their lips met and, as cliché as it seemed, molded perfectly together. She was done holding back her feelings that had been produced from over a year of love because of a single lie and the smaller lies that had grown off of it. The truth was she should have given in a lot sooner. Maybe if she had, this moment wouldn't be so aggressively rushed and desperate.

After having the emotions build for so long, she had no idea how she was ever going to be satisfied. The sparks ignited as Aria remembered just how much she'd pined to relive these devouring kisses and roaming hands across bare skin again. Everything needed to be closer, rougher, quicker, more passionate. Her only regret that night was not wearing something that was easier to take off.

…

Three hours later Aria was curled up in the covers, one leg entangled in Ezra's, as her hand brushed aside a clump of hair behind her ear. "We should probably eat that pie now," she joked quietly. She laid on her back and tugged the covers farther up her bare body, shivering in the now-chilly room.

"Or…" There was the rustle of sheets and Ezra was next to Aria, placing chaste kisses on her neck and collarbone. "We can…"

Aria shoved him in a playful manner to disrupt his suggestion. "What time is?"

Ezra reached for the clock he kept on the bookshelves behind his bed and squinted his eyes to read the time, wishing for once that he had went digital. "One-twenty-five."

They'd been up since ten. "I'm exhausted," Aria complained. "But my head is still whirring."

"Mine too," Ezra sighed. The excess adrenaline that hadn't been burned off in his veins was still making his entire body pound.

Thoughtfully, Aria pursed her lips. The passion high she had been on was slowly ebbing, but ebbing nonetheless, and everything she'd thrown out the window the second the dam had cracked was returning to her. Turning onto her side, she gazed up at Ezra and noticed that he, too, had realized their blissful paradise had ended. "Ezra," she whispered to catch his attention. "What was this to you?"

It took Ezra an entire minute to fully process what Aria had said because his mind kept getting sidetracked by what had happened that night and how much he wanted to repeat it so that they could forget their issues one more time. "I…I don't know. An overflow of tension brought about by past feelings, I guess," he responded truthfully. Finally he looked at her, into the battling eyes that had surrendered a few hours ago, and admitted in absolute honesty, "It wasn't just physical for me."

The two just stared at each other, and Ezra wondered if she was thinking of replaying the night, too, but instead she whispered, almost inaudibly, "Yeah, me neither." That's when she realized that if she didn't shift her gaze now she was going to give into him again. Exhaling the air that she had been containing, she moved into a sitting position, taking the covers with her.

She looked down at the rumpled sheets and still she was having a difficult time convincing herself this wasn't a dream. Bringing her knees to her chest, she curled her arms around her legs and gently propped her chin on them. While continuing to study the wrinkled covers, she elaborated, "Ezra, I know what just happened was intense, but…" The words were a struggle to string along into sentences, and it didn't help that her thoughts were at odds with each other. "That doesn't mean I'm forgiving you or jumping back into bed like I just did with you and forgetting the reasons that led us here. I really do want to take this, our relationship and whatever is happening with it, slowly." She wasn't sure about rebuilding it to what it once was, but it was a start.

"As friends?" Ezra piped up and Aria curved her head and peered at him. Her ability to read him like a book told her that he was awaiting her answer anxiously. It was obvious he didn't want to be abandoned by her after the intimacy—something which always sprouted because of an undying, un-severed connection—they had just experienced, but it was also palpable that Aria now knew with complete certainty that she didn't want to rid her life of Ezra.

"As friends," Aria answered and, after eying each other like they have been all night, slightly devious smirks on their faces, she leaned forward and placed a quick kiss on his jawline, next to his earlobe. She then scooted closer to him and laid her head on his shoulder, the tip of her nose brushing his warm cheek as she shut her eyes peacefully.

While Aria settled so intimately next to him, Ezra pulled the covers over them and tenderly set the blanket Aria had thrown off of them over her naked shoulders. After he had finished making themselves comfortable, he moved the knotted hair out of Aria's face to behind her ear. Ezra couldn't help but notice how serene she looked when she was falling asleep, her mind free of torment, and the thought of having to see her leave in the morning made him wish it was a weekend. "Are friends allowed to take each other out for coffee?" he asked boldly before he knew his mouth had moved.

Aria's eyelids fluttered open and Ezra saw the black pupil centered in her green-brown iris dilate and contract as it adjusted to the light. The corners of her bow-shaped mouth turned up in a friendly smile and her throat rumbled in laughter; she pulled in her bottom lip to hide a much wider smile. Her hand came up and encircled his neck, toying with the nearly black hair at the nape, and she nodded her head. "Of course."

"I'll pick you up after school then," Ezra replied smoothly, and he remembered to breathe, something he had stopped doing the moment she'd opened her eyes.

"Okay," Aria agreed and reached out to push back the hair from Ezra's forehead. Leaning towards him, she left a lingering kiss on his cheek before giving in to the temptation and pecked him on the corner of his lips. "Good night."

"Good night," Ezra also said, meanwhile wondering how he was going to fall asleep after all of this. Aria nuzzled into his neck again, her eyelids hiding her ever changing irises, and Ezra took that as a cue that nothing else was going to happen that night. So he turned so that he was facing her, burrowed his nose into her mess of hair, draped his arm around her waist, and nudged her as close as they could be. Once he shut his eyes, he hid a grin when he felt Aria's leg brush against his, and he fell asleep more comfortably than he'd had in weeks.

…

When Ezra had first met Aria, he had been sitting at a bar pondering how to continue his manuscript while also worrying about the teaching job he was starting that Monday. He couldn't concentrate on the book in front of him and the missing person poster with Alison's face on it kept staring at him, making him remember why he'd applied for a teaching position in this town to begin with.

Though teaching had always been a passion of his that he was excited to commence, he was also dreaming about learning more about Alison DiLaurentis in a high school where everyone knew her. So when he peeked curiously at the young woman next to him and saw she was staring in grief at the Alison poster, he was excited, to say the least, that maybe she knew Alison personally.

She looked familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on why. He had a short list of names Alison had told him from before she went missing, but that's all they were to him: names. Names of Alison's best friends; he'd never seen their faces. Well, one time she showed him a picture, but it was so long ago he couldn't recall it to save his life. So maybe he didn't know this girl after all.

Now was his chance. Alison had college friends, and this girl might be one of them. That was the main reason he struck up a conversation. But as their conversation deepened, Ezra wanted to keep it going. By the end of the night they'd ended up being reckless and Ezra had noticed that, strangely enough, he hadn't brought up Alison once. _At least I have her number,_ Ezra thought and stared at the contact on his cell screen. She hadn't put in her last name, making her even more mysterious and interesting to Ezra, but her name was Aria. Though a girl named Aria was on the list of Alison's friends, Ezra shrugged it off, saying there was bound to be more than one girl named Aria in Rosewood. And on Monday he figured out that maybe there wasn't, but Alison hadn't specified the ages of her friends by name and had only insinuated that she knew both high school and college students.

It was a struggle after that. Ezra very much enjoyed Aria's company, and they had quickly developed a romantic relationship. As time passed Ezra found himself abandoning his manuscript, a pile of papers he'd barely touched since moving to Rosewood because, well, some_one_ got in the way, and he gave it up all together. Why would he want to take advantage of someone he was obviously connecting with? So he scrapped Alison and moved on with her friends instead.

But as it turned out, not all soulmates were meant to be together. After their serious breakup, Ezra had the time to research one of his suspicions and dug up the truth: A was still around, like he had suspected. And that's when Ezra's obsession started.

_He was flipping through the notes he'd been taking for a few weeks into his relationship with Aria until he'd buried it away in a drawer—and he was desperate. Just because they weren't together anymore didn't mean he stopped caring or worrying, and finding out A was back stressed out Ezra the most. Alison had told him of an A—was this the same or a different A torturing the girls? There had to be something in his notes, but he came up with nothing; it was mostly of previous suspects of Alison's murder who'd come up clean. He called up Mona, who'd unsurprisingly found him out, and told her he needed an extra boost, or he couldn't edit out everything she'd done from his manuscript (even though he wasn't going to publish it, but Mona didn't need to know that). They needed to piece this together, he said. She needed to give him everything she'd collected on the girls, in case there was someone involved in one of their secrets who might loathe them for it. Because if Mona wasn't A anymore, who was?_

_In his researching state he threw the notebook across the room and ran over to the timelines, scrutinizing every detail he'd dug up from the night Alison disappeared, but of course it was all the same: only piecing together what had happened to her but not who could have hurt her or wanted to hurt her friends. After being tempted to rip up every last picture, from the photos Mona took to the suspect portraits on the wall, he clenched his hands into fists to prevent the surge and instead headed over to his computer system, obsessively checking video footage and photos for anything, absolutely anything, that was out of the ordinary and could lead him to A. But no matter how much he looked, nothing new appeared. There were no shadowy figures, no suspicious characters climbing into their houses or following them home. He was stuck with the only thing he knew for certain: that Alison was alive (he was trying to track her but was only coming up with dead ends). Other than that, he only had his suspicions, and he opened up a document that held the list of suspects._

_There were crossed out names: Aria, Hanna, Emily, Jason, Noel, Lucas; names with question marks set next to them, like Spencer, Melissa, Mona, and Jenna; and bolded names that Ezra needed to look into: Cece, Shana, and Jessica DiLaurentis. His eyes roamed the list desperately as though one of those people would pop out of his screen and admit to being A, but nothing happened. So far he'd only talked to Cece and Shana, and neither had seemed overly suspicious, yet neither had been proven not guilty. There was something off about both of them, along with Alison's mom who returned out of nowhere… There had to be more to it. He was already on Shana's good side because they both wanted to help Alison and he needed to get closer to Cece, but she was always in hiding somewhere because of Wilden's murder._

_Ezra banged his fist on the table and swore loudly, the picture frame tumbling off the side and shattering on the floor. Once he was calmed down and able to breathe normally, he bent down and picked it up, the guilt and sadness consuming him when he saw he had broken the frame holding the photo of him and Aria. His thumb grazed her smiling face, the face that would be so hurt and pained and betrayed when she found out everything he'd been hiding—from the book to knowing Alison to setting up security systems to protect him, her, and her friends, to hiring private investigators to look into his suspects and follow the girls—and his frustration tripled in a second. He wanted to help her end this so much, he had become addicted, obsessed with knowing the full story, and he had gone too far with these security systems and PIs invading their privacy without their knowledge. He had gone over the edge and he wouldn't be surprised if Aria drove him out of Rosewood when she found out. _

_As the anger and frustration built, Ezra thoughtlessly threw the frame across the room—and there was A, standing in the doorway, their face shadowed by a black hood, gun in his or her hand pointed at him._

_A had found him out. It was over._

Ezra woke up with a start. Since that emotional explosion on the ski lift, Ezra had been having frequent dreams of his gone-overboard obsession that had ended his relationship, and trust, with Aria. Even if it did end up helping the girls a little bit, it was still wrong on Ezra's part. And he wished every day that instead of going behind her and her friends' backs to hunt down A by himself, he had just pulled Aria aside and told her what he knew and what he planned to do about it. "We can set up security footage," he could have suggested, "in case A tries to break in or follow you home. And you can let me handle all of it because A doesn't and has never suspected me." That way they could have worked together, and none of this strain and awkwardness would exist.

A whimper jolted him out of his thoughts and he glanced down at Aria. Her nails dug into his chest and he grabbed her hand, calling out her name questionably. Like him, she was having a nightmare—but hers were by far much worse.

"_We're all going to die," Alison shrieked as they were trapped on the roof with no escape. "A's going to shoot us down!"_

_Aria opened her mouth, ready to scream at Ali to shut up, when the door barged open and A fell out, fighting off Ezra. The girls screamed in fear and surprise as Ezra knocked A to the ground and punched him or her across the face, attempting to pry the gun out of A's hand. It went off a few times, and Aria began to cry, the only thing keeping her from having a breakdown the fact that the gun was shooting at the sky. But then A became aggressive and threw Ezra off, pinning him to the ground and kicking his shin. As Ezra writhed in pain, attempting to get up, A was already on their feet and calmly pointed the gun at him. _

_A shot rang out. Then another, and another, and another. Aria's body jumped out of her skin and she covered her wet, red-rimmed eyes with her hands as the gun kept going off. By the time the last bullet had been fired, A was gone, and Aria didn't want to look at the massacre. It was enough to hear Alison screech if he was dead and Spencer confirm that he was. _

_A pair of arms encircled Aria as the ground started to spin and she collapsed, opening her eyes and seeing that she was in a black dress at Shana's funeral, kneeling in front of her coffin. No one was there and Aria blinked, confused. _

_At that moment the funeral home doors shot open and policemen filed in. Tears streaming down her face, Aria held her hands up in guilt as an officer came up and cuffed her. Behind the squad ran Emily, Spencer, Hanna, and Alison, all frantic and freaked out. "We're sorry," they all tried to explain at the same time. "Spencer's mom was able to get our charges cleared but we were just accomplices. You're the murderer, Aria. We couldn't plead self-defense because we fled the scene and the police think we have something to hide."_

_Aria's face paled as she was jerked up on her feet and forced out of the funeral home. _You're the murderer, Aria. We couldn't plead self-defense…

_Aria knew exactly what that meant. She was going to jail for pre-meditated manslaughter._

_She'd been caught._

"Aria? Aria, wake up."

Aria was startled awake by a pair of hands shaking her shoulders a bit roughly. Her hand reached up to her cold, pale face and by her wet cheeks she assumed she was crying in her sleep. Blinking, she saw Ezra staring down at her worriedly; it was the first time he'd witnessed her having nightmares about Shana. When she would have nightmares about A, she would just toss around a bit mumbling nonsense, but never had Ezra seen Aria cry because of her tormenting dreams.

"It was just a nightmare," he whispered reassuringly, his fingers pushing the damp hair away from her face.

Still a bit dazed, Aria propped herself up by her elbows and kept blinking her eyes. Eventually her bottom lip began to wobble. "I'm going to jail," she murmured and began to cry.

"What?" Ezra said, confused.

Aria continued to graze her fingers over her face, wondering if she was really there or if she was still in her nightmare. "M-my dream," she stammered. "They found me."

"Aria," Ezra said softly. He hesitantly reached out and took her hands in his, moving them away from her face. "You're safe." She looked at him and bore her fearful, sad eyes into his as he held her hands and squeezed them conciliatorily. He smiled comfortingly. "Nothing bad will ever happen to you, not with me around. And even though I know we're still in a shaky place right now…" He gently wiped her cheek with the back of his hand and lingered on her cool skin soothingly. "You'll always have me."

Beaming, Aria reached up and entwined her hand with Ezra's on her cheek, shutting her eyes and basking in that affection for a second. "Thank you," she croaked and brought their tangled fingers to her lap. Seriously, it comforted her knowing that she would at least have Ezra by her side when—if—the police caught her from fleeing the crime scene and therefore having something to hide, like planned murder. In fact, Ezra would probably take the blame for her if he didn't have a solid alibi for that night.

Ezra grinned boyishly and ran his fingers through her hair one more time before patting the sheets between them. "Now, try to get some sleep. And if you have another nightmare, I'll be here to wake you up."

As Aria nestled back under the covers, she remained staring thoughtfully at the ceiling. Though her dream-self had felt horrible for Shana's death, she also didn't feel as much remorse. In her dream Shana had killed Ezra without a second thought, and in reality she could have easily done the same. She could have killed her and her friends if Ezra hadn't knocked the gun out of her hands. It was her fault for holding the gun and threatening their lives, and because of that Aria had taken action to protect them. The scar that had almost been the death of him and the memories of the shots at them as they ran was proof that Shana wasn't right in the was dawning on Aria now: that she had never set out to kill her, just to stop her from hurting her friends since she had already injured Ezra.

"Ezra?" Aria called into the silent room.

"Hmm?" Ezra mumbled in response, worn out from the long night.

"I…I think I'm ready to forgive myself."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: And that's it! Sorry this was late. I really enjoyed writing this because I'm a huge Ezria shipper and with all the Ezra/Ezria hate on Tumblr, I feel like one of the few people left who doesn't see Ezra's situation as different as Toby's was, though Ezra started off with selfish intentions. I genuinely feel like the writers could have avoided such a mess if they had toned down Ezra's storyline just a tad, hence why I explained what Ezra's ****_true _****story should be in chapter two of this three-shot. I hope you all liked my touch on that, and it's actually a touch a lot of Ezria fans wish the writers could explain (that Ezra knew Aria existed through Alison, but he never knew how old she was or what she looked like because Alison had both high school and college age friends). **

**_If you read any of my other stories, this is important_****. This summer I've been working on a new story, a future Ezria fic, and I've been taking a new approach than usual. I'm currently writing it ahead of time so that I can regularly instead of sporadically update it; I'm hoping to have it posted before the end of summer. Regarding my currently published stories, I am still very excited for "Till Truth Do Us Part" and "Two Halves of a Whole," but I am having terrible writers' block for "Scandalous" and "Up in Flames." I am also seriously considering not continuing "The Silence of the A." **

**So please, if you have any ideas, concerns, or comments, feel free to message me. Thanks for reading! The 100th was fantastic for everyone, I think.**

* * *

**Every Breath You Take **

**Part 3**

When the alarm on Aria's phone blared, Aria instantly woke up and slapped the screen to shut it off. Groaning, she wanted to skip school today, but she and her friends had a lot of talking to do. Once she was able to convince herself to open her eyes, she saw Ezra making coffee in the kitchen in only his boxers. Her eyes softened at the sight of the puffy skin on his side.

"What are you doing up so early?" Aria croaked as she sat up and yawned. Promptly and eagerly Ezra appeared at her side with a mug of blackish, caffeinated coffee, as though he was her obsequious servant.

"I'm used to getting up this early. Habit, I guess," Ezra explained while Aria took a sip of the steaming coffee brewed just the way she liked it. Aria could feel Ezra's enthusiastic vibes, the exact vibes that had almost scared her from sleeping over last week. She knew what Ezra was thinking, and it hurt her to know that jumping back into a relationship that involved sleepovers and lazy mornings wasn't going to happen soon. But she really needed this time to be by herself, to not be tied to someone she was regaining trust with.

After finishing the gulp, Aria set the mug on the nightstand and awkwardly pulled the sheets closer to her body. "Ezra, about last night…"

By the reluctance in her tone of voice, Ezra panicked and started to ramble. "I didn't push you, right? Because I would have stopped if you told me—"

"No, Ezra, it's okay. It was all on me." Aria ceased his babbling.

"And me. You're not taking all the blame, Aria." He wanted to add, _You always put so much blame on yourself for things you shouldn't be_, but he clamped his mouth shut after feeling like he was suffocating her enough with his words. Just being around her, a woman he'd never thought he'd get close to again, made him crazy.

A brief awkward moment passed and Aria got up from the bed, taking the sheets with her. "I'm going to get ready for school," she proclaimed and scurried off to the bathroom.

_Ugh_, Aria mentally thought as her nose crinkled in disgust at her rat's nest of hair. Too much rolling around last night, she couldn't help but think while she put a brush to her head and untangled the nasty knots. She hadn't had time to shower, so she quickly braided it and threw on the outfit she'd found snuggled in the drawer she'd stolen in Ezra's dresser.

She stepped out of the bathroom to find Ezra reading the newspaper at the kitchen table, coffee and toasted bagel on the side. It was so normal and everything she missed about their previous relationship that it made her shiver, so she busied herself with picking up her clothes from the other night.

She had no idea how her spiky belt had been thrown across Ezra's desk, but it had, and when Aria went to grab it, the corner of her eyes caught a glimpse of a reflective surface. There, snuggled next to Ezra's countless books, was the picture frame she'd destroyed in her heartbroken tornado. The frame had been replaced with a new one, and when Aria picked up her belt, she saw the broken frame on his desk, taped up like he'd tried to piece it together again.

Clearing her throat like she hadn't been dawdling suspiciously, Aria stuffed her things into her bag and quickly shuffled towards the door. "See you after school, right?" she reminded him cheerfully, though she knew he didn't need to jog his memory.

Ezra looked up from the paper and smiled at her, nodding his head. "I'll be waiting at the front at three o'clock sharp."

Before Aria closed the door, her eyes scanned the place she'd fallen in love with, to the rumpled bed to the paper bags on the top shelf, and to the man comfortably sitting in the chair. She wanted this, she realized. She wanted to come home every day to something like this, her safe place, though it had torn her up at one point and spit her out.

But as quickly as she'd stared into that safe haven the door was closed. To everyone else she looked like a regular visitor walking the complex halls, yet no one knew what the inside of that door held for her. And again she was just Aria, standing in front of apartment 3B, a stranger in everyone's eyes except for the man's through the wooden door.

…

Before lunch that day, Aria and Spencer stopped at the bathroom, which was mostly so Aria could reapply her makeup and Spencer would watch her.

"So, how was your night?" Aria sighed while covering her lips with fruity lip balm.

Spencer groaned and leaned against the sink, giving Aria an exasperated look. "How do you think?"

Aria frowned and twisted the cap back onto her lip balm. "I'm really sorry, Spence," she said in a quiet, compassionate voice. "You know I'm here for you, right? My parents went through a rough time, too…"

"I appreciate that, Aria," Spencer spoke, glancing down at her shoes instead of at Aria's eyes. "But…I'd rather not talk about it."

"I understand," Aria said, and she really, really meant it. When her parents were splitting, all she'd wanted to do was curl up in her bed or, in one case, just be in Ezra's arms. The second time they split for real, Aria was devastated, but not so much as before; she just wanted her parents to be happy, and she had to accept that maybe it wasn't with each other. Plus, she was almost a legal adult, and didn't need both of their vigilant eyes on her at all times.

As Aria tilted her head and unknowingly made a mirror face, Spencer looked up and did a double take on the barely there, bruise-ish marking on her collarbone. "Wait a minute, what is that?"

Aria straightened her head and furrowed her eyebrows. "What is what?"

"That, under your collar, hiding under your braid." Before Aria could think of a way out, Spencer had grabbed her hair and shirt collar and gasped melodramatically. "Oh my God, is that a hickey?"

"Spence!" Aria hissed and pushed away from her. Her entire face went from deathly pale to rosy pink to burning red in the matter of seconds, and she reapplied her lip balm out of anxiety and embarrassment for being found out.

"So that's what _you_ were doing last night. With who?" By Aria's hesitation, Spencer's suspicions were confirmed, and her eyes widened. "With _Ezra_? Aria!"

"What, Spence?" Aria snapped, slamming the lip balm stick on the bathroom sink. "We slipped, okay? So what?"

"Have you...forgiven him?"

After a miniscule battle playing out through the glints of her eyes, Aria sighed and turned around, facing Spencer. Poring her eyes into Spencer's, she gave her the most honest expression anyone could give and replied, "I don't know, Spence."

"Well, maybe you should." Aria pulled her bottom lip in and chewed it with her teeth, silent. Spencer cocked an eyebrow at the lack of response. "Unless he forced you...?"

"No, no, he didn't," Aria replied immediately. "There's just been...a _lot_ of sexual tension, you can say, around us since he got out of the hospital."

"Yeah. I noticed after you stayed over last week."

"It's just, I don't know if I can forgive him, Spence."

"Doesn't last night say something? You've already slept with—"

"Spencer, please. Stop."

"Aria, you know how much I hated Ezra, too. In fact, I'm _still _pissed at him. Look at how I watched you unravel after what he did! But now, after everything that's happened, all of the sacrifices, all of the explanations… Wouldn't you at least be on neutral ground?"

Hesitant, Aria fumbled with her tongue before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. _Focus, Aria._ But it was hard to focus when last night was on replay in her head, along with the memory of last week and those frightening moments she spent waiting in the hospital to hear of his recovery…or passing. "Forgiveness is… I don't hate him, obviously. And sex doesn't necessarily mean forgiveness, now, does it? But…I just need more time, okay?" Spinning back around, Aria grabbed for her lip balm and stuffed it into her purse. After Spencer's notice of the bruise-colored mark on her skin, Aria bent forward closer to the mirror and examined the hickey she'd tried to cover over with concealer. The tint was barely visible, yet Spencer was scary observant sometimes. "I haven't forgiven him, and I'm not going to. It's too soon for that, and I'm just starting to trust him again. For right now we're just friends who got a bit carried away last night. We're starting from scratch and building up from there."

Spencer smirked, not sure whether to fear for her friend's wellbeing or trust Aria's judgment. In all honesty, she was still shaky on her opinion of Ezra as well, though she knew that he wasn't a bad guy; she just didn't want Aria to get hurt again.

As Aria strutted past Spencer to the door, Spencer shrugged her shoulders in defense. "Whatever you say." She held the door open after Aria passed through and grabbed onto Aria's elbow, whispering in her ear, "By the way, if he hurts you again, tell him I'll take away his nuts, and not figuratively."

Aria's eyes widened and she burst into giggles, sure that Spencer was joking. But by the steely glare in her eyes, Aria's face fell, and she realized Spencer was serious. "Oh," she murmured before coughing awkwardly and walking faster to the cafeteria.

There, Spencer thought, feeling accomplished of herself. Though she couldn't stop Aria from seeing Ezra, at least she could warn Ezra that he had it coming.

…

After the bell rang signaling the end of the school day, Aria hastily grabbed her books from her locker and ran down the hallway, not wanting to be confronted by her friends. All she wanted right now was a jumbo soy latte with a chocolate croissant pastry and a good humored conversation—and that all happened to be with Ezra. Just as she was about to slam through the front doors, Spencer grabbed her elbow, and Aria moaned in defeat.

"Hey, do you want to walk home with me?" Spencer asked innocently, and Aria locked her eyes with Spencer's guiltily. Spencer's smirk from before reappeared and she let go of Aria's elbow to cross her arms at her chest. "Oh, I see. Are you going to Ezra's place to _slip _again?"

Chewing her bottom lip feverishly, Aria shook her head, though by her delayed response she wouldn't be surprised if Spencer didn't believe her. "I promised someone I'd go get coffee with them…," she mumbled while glancing down at the books clasped in her arms.

"You can say 'Ezra,' Aria. His name isn't Lord Voldemort's."

Aria sighed dramatically, knowing there was no way around Spencer; she had always been able to read her mind. "Yes, it's with Ezra. And he's waiting for me, so… Some other time?"

"Yeah, of course, I'll just call Toby." But Aria kept standing there as though if she moved Spencer would laser her down with her eyes. "Go on. Go 'get coffee' with Fitz."

"It's _just coffee_," Aria declared quickly as she scattered off past the doors. Spencer watched Aria retreat into the crowd of students until she came up to a silver car and climbed inside. Though it was from a distance, Spencer could see Ezra's eyes light up and lips curl into a wide grin as Aria sat next to him, despite not greeting him with a kiss or a dirty remark. Aria was facing away from Spencer, obviously chatting with Ezra, and Ezra nodded his head in indication that he was listening to her as he started the car and drove off.

She wondered if Aria was smiling, too, because that's exactly how she pictured her at that moment.

…

"No, no, _you _were the one who lugged that camera around," Aria protested as she entered 3B, a giant coffee in her hand. "I just suggested the walk in the park, remember?"

Ezra shut the door behind them and set the pastry bag on the counter, meanwhile arguing, "Yes, but it being our first official, _official_ time out in public, I wanted to be memorable. And come on, it was _fun. _I'm always fun."

Plopping down into the chair, Aria smiled while reminiscing. "Okay, fine, it _was _amusing asking random strangers to take our picture. And the small town gossip just made their shocked expressions even better." She giggled, remembering the way people she never met before wrinkled their noses at the recognition of Mr. Fitz and the appearance that the rumors were true. They'd asked multiple people and ended up with more pictures than they really needed, wrapping up the day sitting on a bench to converse, Aria eventually ending the date in the early evening with a picture she took by stretching out her arm and pointing the camera lens at them.

As Aria gulped down the pastry—"generously" offering one eighth of it to Ezra—she realized she didn't want to leave just yet, so she made the bold move and suggested a movie.

After that, no speaking was really done; enough had been said, and the silence was surprisingly comfortable unlike their silences in the past few weeks. Aria raced to the couch and jumped on it, enjoying the give of the leather cushions. Ezra popped in a DVD, the classic one they'd first seen together despite her mom awkwardly being there too, and sat next to Aria. At first all they did was sit side-by-side, but then Aria scooted closer to him and laid her head on his shoulder.

Despite their closeness last night, Ezra was slightly taken aback. How was he supposed to react? Was he allowed to put his arm around her and pull her closer? Lay his head on top of hers?

Aria felt Ezra's body stiffen by her movement and silently urged him to loosen up by nuzzling her head closer to his neck. After ten minutes, Ezra made the move and put his arm around her, and Aria's entire body heated up. By the time ten more minutes had passed, Aria was buzzing. For some hormonal reason, she wanted to be _closer._

And just like that she pulled away and stared at Ezra. Ezra looked back, unable to read her expression due to the distraction that he was boiling, too. In the matter of seconds she kissed his jawline up to his lips, releasing a tiny bit of the tension that hadn't been exerted last night.

Neither had much of a clue what was going on or why, but both had a feeling it had to do with last night's unraveling and the persistent aching to burn it off. Maybe it hadn't been the best idea for them to talk about their past romantic relationship, resurfacing those passionate feelings. Yet they ended up repeating last night anyway.

Exactly like this morning, Aria was startled awake by her phone ringing. Although it was only seven in the evening, she and Ezra had retired to bed at five. She struggled to untangle herself and grappled for her phone, the buzzing device stubbornly sitting in one spot on the nightstand, and saw that she had ten urgent text messages from Ali, Emily, and Spencer, all indicating that they were having an emergency meeting at Emily's because the news was going to reveal the girl buried in Ali's place.

"Ezra." Rushed and shocked, Aria shook him roughly. "Ezra, wake up!"

"Hmm what?" he mumbled as he jumped awake, his brain not processing that he wasn't sleeping anymore. But by the urgent tone in Aria's voice, Ezra snapped out of it in distress and worry. "What is it?"

Aria threw his clothes at him as she shrugged into her own. "Get dressed," she commanded him. "We're going to Emily's."


End file.
